God bless you and your friend

When I was about 26, one of my best friend's mother committed suicide after battling depression for years. It was tough to deal with, and in a lot of ways it still hangs over my friend and his siblings. There will be a lot of second guessing, and thinking that they should have done "something", or recognized "signs" that there were issues (or that things were more serious than they thought). It's not their fault. It..is..not..their..fault. The sad reality is that there is nothing that you can do other than support your friend. Just be there for them - but don't smother them, it's a fine line. I did some suicide awareness events with my friend and his family to help support them over the years and I used to make sure to call him (pre cell phone days) around the anniversary of his mom's passing just to make sure that he was ok. We mostly just try to remember the good times that we had growing up, before there were any signs of depression with his mother. It just takes time.